17,524 research outputs found
Self-reported pain severity is associated with a history of coronary heart disease
This study was funded by Arthritis Research UK (grant number: 17292).Peer reviewedPublisher PD
The development of a new measure of quality of life for children with congenital cardiac disease
The purpose of the study was to develop a questionnaire measuring health-related R1 quality of life for children and adolescents with congenital heart disease, the ConQol, that would have both clinical and research applications. We describe here the process of construction of a questionnaire, the piloting and the development of a weighted scoring system, and data on the psychometric performance of the measure in a sample of 640 children and young people recruited via 6 regional centres for paediatric cardiology from across the United Kingdom. The ConQol has two versions, one designed for children aged from 8 to 11 years, and the other for young people aged from 12 to 16 years. Initial findings suggest that it is a valid and reliable instrument, is acceptable to respondents, and is simple to administer in both a research and clinical context
Using educational technology to reach a wider audience for healthcare technology management
We discuss a collaboration between Health Partners International, HEART and the Open University (OpenLearn) to develop a short open access course for the purpose of improving policy making and practice in healthcare technology in developing countries
The H.E.S.S. II GRB Program
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are some of the most energetic and exotic events in
the Universe, however their behaviour at the highest energies (>10 GeV) is
largely unknown. Although the Fermi-LAT space telescope has detected several
GRBs in this energy range, it is limited by the relatively small collection
area of the instrument. The H.E.S.S. experiment has now entered its second
phase by adding a fifth telescope of 600 m mirror area to the centre of
the array. This new telescope increases the energy range of the array, allowing
it to probe the sub-100 GeV range while maintaining the large collection area
of ground based gamma-ray observatories, essential to probing short-term
variability at these energies. We will present a description of the GRB
observation scheme used by the H.E.S.S. experiment, summarising the behaviour
and performance of the rapid GRB repointing system, the conditions under which
potential GRB repointings are made and the data analysis scheme used for these
observations.Comment: In Proceedings of the 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference
(ICRC2015), The Hague, The Netherland
Relationships and events: towards a general theory of reification and truthmaking.
We propose a novel ontological analysis of relations and relationships based on a re-visitation of a classic problem in the practice of knowledge repre- sentation and conceptual modeling, namely relationship reification. Our idea is that a relation holds in virtue of a relationship's existence. Relationships are therefore truthmakers of relations. In this paper we present a general theory or reification and truthmaking, and discuss the interplay between events and rela- tionships, suggesting that relationships are the focus of events, which emerge from the context (the scene) they occur in
Measuring the Initial-Final Mass-Relation using wide double white dwarf binaries from Gaia DR3
The Initial-Final Mass-Relation (IFMR) maps the masses of main sequence stars
to their white dwarf descendants. The most common approach to measure the IFMR
has been to use white dwarfs in clusters. However, it has been shown that wide
double white dwarfs can also be used to measure the IFMR using a Bayesian
approach. We have observed a large sample of 90 Gaia double white dwarfs using
FORS2 on the VLT. Considering 52 DA+DA, DA+DC, and DC+DC pairs, we applied our
extended Bayesian framework to probe the IFMR in exquisite detail. Our
monotonic IFMR is well constrained by our observations for initial masses of
1-5 Msun, with the range 1-4 Msun mostly constrained to a precision of 0.03
Msun or better. We add an important extension to the framework, using a
Bayesian mixture-model to determine the IFMR robustly in the presence of
systems departing from single star evolution. We find a large but uncertain
outlier fraction of 5921 percent, with outlier systems requiring an
additional Gyr uncertainty in their cooling age
differences. However, we find that this fraction is dominated by a few systems
with massive components near 0.9 Msun, where we are most sensitive to outliers,
but are also able to establish four systems as merger candidatesComment: Accepted for publication in MNRA
Analysis of Dialogical Argumentation via Finite State Machines
Dialogical argumentation is an important cognitive activity by which agents
exchange arguments and counterarguments as part of some process such as
discussion, debate, persuasion and negotiation. Whilst numerous formal systems
have been proposed, there is a lack of frameworks for implementing and
evaluating these proposals. First-order executable logic has been proposed as a
general framework for specifying and analysing dialogical argumentation. In
this paper, we investigate how we can implement systems for dialogical
argumentation using propositional executable logic. Our approach is to present
and evaluate an algorithm that generates a finite state machine that reflects a
propositional executable logic specification for a dialogical argumentation
together with an initial state. We also consider how the finite state machines
can be analysed, with the minimax strategy being used as an illustration of the
kinds of empirical analysis that can be undertaken.Comment: 10 page
Neuroimaging evidence implicating cerebellum in support of sensory/cognitive processes associated with thirst.
Recent studies implicate the cerebellum, long considered strictly a motor control structure, in cognitive, sensory, and affective phenomenon. The cerebellum, a phylogenetically ancient structure, has reciprocal ancient connections to the hypothalamus, a structure important in vegetative functions. The present study investigated whether the cerebellum was involved in vegetative functions and the primal emotions engendered by them. Using positron emission tomography, we examined the effects on the cerebellum of the rise of plasma sodium concentration and the emergence of thirst in 10 healthy adults. The correlation of regional cerebral blood flow with subjects' ratings of thirst showed major activation in the vermal central lobule. During the development of thirst, the anterior and posterior quadrangular lobule, lingula, and the vermis were activated. At maximum thirst and then during irrigation of the mouth with water to alleviate dryness, the cerebellum was less activated. However, 3 min after drinking to satiation, the anterior quadrangular lobule and posterior cerebellum were highly activated. The increased cerebellar activity was not related to motor behavior as this did not occur. Instead, responses in ancient cerebellar regions (vermis, fastigal nucleus, archicerebellum) may be more directly related to vegetative and affective aspects of thirst experiences, whereas activity in neocerebellar (posterior) regions may be related to sensory and cognitive aspects. Moreover, the cerebellum is apparently not involved in the computation of thirst per se but rather is activated during changes in thirst/satiation state when the brain is "vigilant" and is monitoring its sensory systems. Some neocerebellar activity may also reflect an intentionality for gratification by drinking inherent in the consciousness of thirst
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